Today I read a scripture that really touched my spirit very
deeply. Oddly enough it was a scripture
that I had never read before. I was lead
to this and of course, presently I am going through a very similar
circumstance. God communicates with me
this way frequently, and each time it occurs I am always grateful and amazed
that He has time to pay attention to an insignificantly small life as mine, in comparison
to all the matters in the world that must require His immediate and full
attention. But the verse I refer to
comes from (Acts20: 19-38), but for
the purposes of this blog, I will focus on verse 19-24. The apostle Paul is
addressing the Ephesians for the last time before he moves on to the town of
Jerusalem and he pours his heart out to them saying, “I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me
from the plots of the Jews. I never
shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in
your homes. I have but one message for
Jews and Greeks alike-the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God,
and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Now for those of you who know anything about Paul, you know
that he was by no means a soft man. His
name was Saul previously, and he was the man who used to torture and kill
Christians, before being converted in a Christ follower himself. But it touched me how he openly spoke about
the pain, tears and sacrifice he had endured to fulfill the call that God had
placed on his life. He had been
incarcerated, beaten and starved, all because he preached the message of
turning to God and following in the footsteps of Jesus. Paul now a reformed Christian was innocent of
harming no one. Since his conversion,
the only crime he was guilty of was trying to encourage, teach, strengthen and
guide others as he was instructed to do after the death of Christ. He was just minding his own business, doing
his thing, doing what he felt he was called to do. In essence, he was living out his God given
assigned purpose.
Because he was being
obedient to God and following the example that Jesus had set for him, one might
think that by doing this, Paul would be protected from any attacks that “The
Enemy” might send his way. Maybe because
he was such a great man of God that he might be given a “Hedge of Protection”
around him, as was mentioned in the book of Job. Satan had to ask God to remove it, just so he
could attack Job, in the story told in the book written specifically about Job
and Satan’s attack on his life. Well
maybe no one else out there thought that, but I know that I surely did.
I thought that because I, like Paul was minding my own
business, living and doing the Lord’s assigned bidding on my life, and because
I was praying, trusting, believing, acting, speaking in faith and trying as
hard as possible to love, help and encourage people around me, that I would
somehow be protected or exempt from being attacked by the enemy and the people
he had recruited as his little helpers to assist him in his plot against me. But also like Paul, amazingly, and
unfortunately, I was not. And how do I
know that Paul was not exempt from the attacks of The Enemy? Because he goes on to say in the next verse of Acts 20: 22, “And now I am bound by the
Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know
what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that
jail and suffering lay ahead. But my
life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to
me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about the
wonderful grace of God.”
Now that is truly
amazing to me, talk about bravery and unwavering commitment. Paul knew well what lie ahead for him, more
of the same pain and torture he had already endured at the cost of his
cause. How many of us could say the same?
That we would knowingly suffer the agonizing circumstances that awaited Paul,
the gruesome circumstances that he knew he would soon be encountering and
choose to move forward and do it anyway.
How many of us could say that they would knowingly suffer this type of
life for the sake of our beliefs, our religion, our God or any other cause for
that matter? Heck, I don’t even go the
dentist if I know in advance that it will be a painful procedure and that it
might hurt too much. But what is even
more amazing to me is that not only did Paul know that he would be jailed and
tortured, he also knew that some where in the near future he might also be asked to give his very life for his
cause, because he told the Ephesians that this would be his last time seeing
them.
I’m glad that I was lead to read this verse because I needed
to be reminded that Paul, one of the greatest, most faithful disciples of Jesus,
and for that matter, not even Jesus himself was exempt against the attacks of
The Enemy”. So why in the world would I
think that I would be any different?
There is no one in history whose sacrifice was as great as Jesus’ sacrifice
for us.
I’ve always been told that when you’re on the right path,
doing what God has called you to do, are when you are getting very close to a
huge breakthrough in your assigned mission, is the time when the enemy attacks
you the most. Because after all if you
are doing nothing and helping no one and just existing, you are not posing any
threat to him at all, so why bother with you, he can just leave you alone to destroy
yourself, because as it says in scripture, “Without out a vision the people perish.” Just knowing that I am on the path to my
purpose gives me solace, hope and strength to fight every day and to keep on
fighting the fight ahead. I also know that it is a blessing to go through an
affliction and come out victorious on the other side. God allows us to go through certain
experiences so that we can tell others about what we went through and which
gives them hope that they too will get through what they are going through as
well. Our experiences make us valuable and usable
for God in the real world. Our
experiences allow us to be able to relate to others in a very practical,
empathetic way. But one of the biggest
advantages I get from going through hard times is that I grow to a stronger and
higher level of faith, love and gratitude for God. Because each time I go through difficult or
painful circumstances and I get through it, I lam reassured that He will never
leave me or forsake me. I have total
peace in knowing that MY GOD HAS GOT MY BACK!
I also get comfort
in knowing that I have weapons to fight Satan back with. Living a life of love
and faith are tremendous weapons and Satan hates those. But the one weapon I know that he always
flees from and that he has no power against is The Word of God. I am learning to use God’s word by saying it out
loud when Satan attacks me to strengthen myself and send Satan on his way. After all,
Proverbs 18:21 says that “DEATH AND LIFE ARE IN THE POWER OF THE TONGUE.” Even Satan knows the truth when he hears it
and he also knows the remarkable power it holds. When we learn to use our Weapons of Warfare
in real life situations instead of just reading about what happened to the
people in the bible and recite the scriptures, we are actually allowing
ourselves to be used to effectuate change in the world around us? We have to have gone through the experience
and be able to relate it to others in order to help people. No one wants a doctor whose has never done a
surgery before to be the doctor performing their surgery. And even though no one wants to experience
trials and hardships, those are the times when we grow the most and become the
people that we were meant to be. These
are also the times that we learn to trust and lean on God the most. As long as we are alive and on this earth we
will always have trouble. But it’s what
you choose to do in that time that determines who you are and your level of
success or failure when you come through it. Now that you know that you
actually have the power to inflict some damage on Satan, will you choose to use
that power against him? Or will you just
stand still, do nothing and let him bully you, hurt and torture you, derail you
from God’s plan for your life and rob you of your blessings and happiness? I can’t answer for anyone but myself, and I
know what has proven to work for me. I
open my mouth and use the words of scripture to defend myself and for me it has
proven to have unbelievable power to miraculously turn things around in my
life.
So for me, what I try to hold on to when Satan starts to
pull out his heavy artillery against me is this; yes, occasionally he may knock
me down, but with God’s help I will always get up. The more I practice using my weapons of
warfare the better I will become at using them.
And who knows maybe the next time “the enemy” is looking for someone to
pick on, he will think twice before he chooses me.
